He was basically one of the most powerful men in the world, until this day of May 2011 when he was taken on a “perp walk” in New York City, handcuffed, his eyes blitzed away by hundreds of journalists witnessing a fall like we only see in Hollywood movies. That year DSK was accused of attempted rape and sexual assault by a room cleaner in the Sofitel hotel he was occupying, Nafissatou Diallo. The Sofitel trial was reported on international media, and ended with a settlement where DSK gave 1,5 million dollars to Diallo. Although he settled and therefore escaped a final decision of the judge, potentially a conviction, if DSK had been a Norwegian politician this would be a good example of what Norwegian journalists call a political suicide. But in France he was still called a “seductor”.

In Norway a non registered stabbur will get you out of a job. In France aggravated pimping will make you a potential President of the Republic.

It doesn’t stop there. Between 2013 and 2015 he was in another trial, accused this time of aggravated pimping in a prostitution network in North of France and Belgium. Acquitted again. He admitted having orgies but also said he did not know the 40 women laying with him were prostitutes. The prosecutor found that he had benefited from prostitution that others had paid for. So he is not guilty, legally. What about morally? But imagine you read in the newspapers the painful testimony of a woman at the bar explaining the sadism in the man’s eyes when he forced them to perform sexual acts (never named) she were uncomfortable with. Would you vote for this man if he wanted to exist again in the political arena of your country? Even if he begged for forgiveness? (DSK didn’t, in case you were wondering).

If you are Norwegian your answer to this question is certainly “no”. Although this man was never found guilty, there are so many stains on his CV that he lost all the trust of the people he is supposed to represent. In his carrier he was also accused twice of corruption (also acquitted or settled out of court). Plus he doesn’t seem to respect women very much, not a good sign for Norwegians.

But if you are French the spectrum of answers is much wider. Believe it or not, recent polls show DSK in the top 5 of the politicians French voters see as good candidates for the 2017 presidential elections. And he recently wrote two opinion pieces on the way Germany and the EU deal with the Greek crisis that show that he does not see himself as politically dead at all. Not only does he see himself as back in the game, so do French voters.

In Norway the first move of a politician is to apologize and ask for the forgiveness of its voters. Politicians don’t apologize in France, that just shows you are weak. Even worse, when a scandal comes out in the news, the classic defence for a French politician is to look outraged. “I am a victim!” is what they scream in the media. Nicolas Sarkozy, Alain Juppé, Jean Francois Copé all said they were victims of a conspiracy when they were accused of all sorts of crimes. And the French public tends to believe them especially in the case of DSK’s Sofitel case.

You can see the difference: in Norway all the politicians involved in a scandal of any scale apologize at any cost, if possible even before the scandal comes out in the media like Fabian Stang did for having used black labour. Even if they did something wrong but not illegal Norwegian politicians will have to apologize, lay flat and if permitted publicly whip themselves with cries of self blaming and “I will never do it again I promise”. Norwegians, so Christian of them, will usually grant them forgiveness. If not, these people are out of the political game. But if they are still in the stain will remain forever.

Norway and France definitely don’t have the same standards of morals and ethics for their political leaders. So in Norway, the amount of dirt a politician needs to be out is a little handful, in France it is a whole truck of dirt. Oh wait bring two. You know what, I don’t know how much dirt French people need to blacklist a politician. Because apparently (alleged) rape or corruption aren’t enough.

It comes down to this: Norway wants Equality, France protects its Elite

I think the cultural context plays a role in what Norwegians and French people expect from their political leaders. Norwegian politicians are expected to be irreproachable on a moral level and to respect not only the written laws of Norway but also all the other unwritten Norwegian principles leading the public life: a mix of Janteloven, equality, trust of the public and respect for women. The eyes of the people and of the media are on politicians at all time to make sure they don’t use their power to benefit people they like, or that they don’t use money from the tax payers for their private activities. Or that they don’t disrespect women, children, or actually anyone. The public, voters and media are always there to remind those they have elected: Who do you think you are? You are one of us, and don’t you dare think you are better than us for one second. They need to be trusted, and if they cross the line (which is very close) that makes them less trustworthy, politicians have to face consequences which are not always proportionate to the actual mistake. But I am French, so what do I know of a proportionate punishment, it is unheard of in the political elite of my country.

In France our elite has always had more rights than the common people. Unlike Norway which comes more or less from an egalitarian society, French society has, to my knowledge, never been egalitarian. Nobles and then bourgeois always had more rights than us, the common people. The very big distance that exists between the political elite and the voters also doesn’t help. Once met the Minister of Finance of Norway walking in the streets of Oslo, don’t think that anyone would meet Sarkozy or any Minister in the streets of Oslo. The King even took the tram for heaven’s sake! The French politicians have have a life we don’t have, they have money we don’t have and our worlds never meet.

Do you prefer a competent immoral leader or an incompetent ethical one?

I am not giving a very good image of my country. But sometimes I don’t understand how we (I include myself in this because I am also a French voter) can continue accepting such behaviour among those who are supposed to represent us and be the best of us. French voters are tired of the scandals that literally come out on almost every politician in activity. Last year Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President, was involved in so many judicial cases that Le Monde had to make simplified diagrams for the public to understand. The general feeling among the French public is that all politicians are or have been compromised in illegal activities. “They are all from the same elite schools, and know each other from before whatever their political party today. They are basically a bunch of white men in politics for decades who are covering each others’ backs. What can we do?” is a common mantra one hears among French voters. The extreme right wing, le Front National, is of course benefiting from this big mess.

The great irony of this situation is that the French voters keep voting and excusing these same politicians they despise. Unfortunately the French have a very short memory and also very forgiving. To write this article I had to dig into archives and history of many French politicians and I re-discovered all the corruption cases against what seems to be virtually every single politician in activity. Such as for example Alain Juppé, former Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Budget who was convicted of embezzlement, with 2 years of suspended prison sentence and 10 years of ineligibility (later down to one). But I had forgotten stories like this one. And other French people are the same. Public images are rebuilt after a scandal, and the media probably helps give that extra push for politicians to appear clean and trustworthy of being elected again. Guess where Alain Juppé is now. Bingo! In the top 5 of the best candidates seen by the French voters to be in the run for the next Presidental election. All cleaned up.

Imagine now that your country is in a deep economic crisis and you believe collectively that only an economist can save your souls. Sorry, your pensions. In this case, many French people believe that DSK is so smart that he can solve the Greek crisis and maybe France’s economy. “I prefer being led by a competent immoral politician than by an incompetent ethical politician” is something I have heard very often when interviewing French people over this question. As if that was the only choice we had.

If DSK was Norwegian, or for that matter if Norwegian morals applied to French politics who would be left? If you take out of the French political scene all those accused or convicted of sex and corruption scandals a vast majority would be out. And what would that leave us with? Opportunities for new, young, hopefully clean women and men, with diversified ethnic and religious and social backgrounds to build tomorrow’s France. You know, people who actually represent the current French society. Instead we don’t hold our politicians accountable and vote for the same old white elitist men drowning to their eyes into the “secrets de la République”.

What can I say, Vive la France!

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An edited version of this blogpost was published on the Norwegian daily newspaper VG on the 25.07.2015 under the title Vive la France!

10 thoughts on “Morals in Politics: What if French DSK had been Norwegian?”

And here comes this lady again, making friends everywhere! hahaha
As an Argentinian, I find my self at the same hot spot : I love my country, love the people who live there but I hate the way they ( we) justify the unjustifiable. Corruption is something that comes together with the position and you’re not able to do politics if you dont have a master degree in corruption. We do not have many of DSK but our vice-president Amado Boudou has his legal address in a sandbeach (not in a street, not in a house, in a dune of sand) so nobody can reach him legally. He’s prosecuted for trying -and managing- to buy the company that prints the money for the country. Smart, right ? Why bother to earn money when you just can print it yourself? Not to mention that Aníbal Fernandez, who has held several cabinet positions under three presidents over thirteen years is accused to lead the drug cartel and make it possible the entrance into the country of tons of efedrin, used to transform cocaine into LSD. He served as Minister of Production under Eduardo Duhalde, as Interior Minister under Néstor Kirchner, as Minister of Justice under Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and as the President’s Cabinet Chief. So tell me about being ashamed of moral!
Ps : I’ve missed you! Please write more often! 🙂

Thank you for this thought provoking post. I was surprised that you didn’t mention the fact that paying for sex in Norway is illegal (prostitution is not due to the belief that prostitutes are being exploited and that it is demand which should be tackled). I understand France is considering a ban on paying for sex but this is stuck in the Senate. Is that right? Regards. Kevin

Politically speaking, european countries definitely would have a tip or two to learn from the scandinavian/nothern countries. Sadly not only the politicians, but simply more widely, certain elites.
On the other hand, when european countries could just do like Italy did. Only the Italians could come up with the idea of condamning Silvio Berlusconi to clean the toilets! lol “You’re going to take care of people who don’t have a tenth of what you have, and make sure they live in a clean environnement.”
Humbling.

Other than this, your assesment about the “Bourgeois” and the “17th-18th century” is completely wrong. The Bourgeois never had the right to use their maid as slave or sexual object. If I may allow myself, you need to stop believing the french republican school system’s brain washing. The Education Nationale was never a model of objectivity. They defend the “values” of the French Revolution and Voltaire, no matter how much the French Revolutionnaries have assassinated people (the genocides of Lyon and the Vendée region for example, who were two royalists regions who have fought AGAINST the French Revolution and not for it), and no matter how much Voltaire was an immoral opportunist interested only in money… No better than DSK! Even maybe worse. (if it’s possible! lol)

You are in a land with a king (Norway). Those values have been destructed in France in 1789 (Sadly, Lyon and Vendée lost the war). 1789-93 never brought anything good to France. Just pain and destruction. If Lyon and Vendée had won, we would be a democratical monarchy, like Norway is nowdays. And it doesn’t seem they have a lot of lessons to recieve from us on this level. 🙂

The idea of saying the King of France was bad and the Bourgeois and Church did only bad things, is republican propaganda. History is always written by those who won the war. That doesn’t mean they are those who are morally right. As Mao Tse Dong said (and the heartless dictator is no hero of mine lol) “who controls the school system, controls the people.” By believing all of what they teach you in school (the King was atrocious, the Boutgeois were all bad, all of what France had to go through is the Church’s fault) you believe those people’s propaganda… Nothing less. This is not History. This is manipulation at the service of the French Republic.

Other than that, I always enjoy reading your blog, and like to read this cultural norwegian/french parallelism. 🙂

Sorry I have a different opinion on this. Maybe Norwegian politicians don’t buy sex. But having lived in Norway for x years, you surely know what Norwegians do after some beers in parties and at Julebord. They don’t need to pay prostitute because the attitude to sex with random people is much relaxed here. If one can get something for free, why bother paying money for it? You can’t say sleeping with someone free = romance while paying sex is unethnical…

We are talking about sexual assault here, not consensual sex between adults. Also, I am pretty sure Norwegian men including politicians also pay for sex, there have been scandals involving politicians here too…